Connecting learning
Teachers support students to make connections within and across learning to develop increasingly complex schemas.
Connecting learning is an explicit teaching strategy. Teachers actively support students to make connections within and across knowledge, skills and understanding as well as to prior learning experiences. Learning is a change to long term memory. Long term memory is a network of overlapping information with many connections (AERO 2024a), which are called schemas (CESE 2017). Making connections within and across learning helps students to develop increasingly complex mental models or schemas (AERO 2024b). There is no limit to how complex a schema may become (CESE 2017).
Schemas help manage cognitive load because they only occupy one 'space' in working memory, even though they may be infinitely complex.
Image adapted from Australian ÌÇÐÄvlog¹ÙÍø Research Organisation Limited (AERO) (2024c) and licensed under CC BY 4.0.
Strategy learning module
The Strategy learning module – Connecting learning (PPTX 14 MB):
- breaks down the strategy
- shows how the strategy can be applied using different techniques
- offers professional learning support for a whole-school approach to explicit teaching.
More information about how to implement this professional learning can be found on Leading explicit teaching.
Technique guides
Explicit teaching strategies are implemented in the classroom through a range of techniques that are intentionally selected by the teacher. These techniques are not an exhaustive list of every approach a teacher may use to implement this strategy. These technique guides provide support to teachers to understand and apply the technique as part of their explicit teaching practice:
What it isn’t
- Asking students to find or discover connections without teacher guidance.
- Creating/sharing every possible connection across all KLAs.
- Making references to previous activities students have completed without making clear how the learning from that activity is connected to new learning.
- Assuming students have retained prior knowledge.
Further resources
- Maths in schools podcast (11 August 2023) .
- NSW Department of ÌÇÐÄvlog¹ÙÍø (2023) .
- NSW Department of ÌÇÐÄvlog¹ÙÍø (2023) .
AERO (Australian ÌÇÐÄvlog¹ÙÍø Research Organisation) (2024b) , AERO, accessed 16 April 2024.
AERO (Australian ÌÇÐÄvlog¹ÙÍø Research Organisation) (2024c) , AERO, accessed 16 April 2024.
AERO (Australian ÌÇÐÄvlog¹ÙÍø Research Organisation) (2024a) , AERO, accessed 16 April 2024.
CESE (Centre for ÌÇÐÄvlog¹ÙÍø Statistics and Evaluation) (2017) Cognitive load theory: Research that teachers really need to understand, NSW Department of ÌÇÐÄvlog¹ÙÍø, accessed 16 April 2024.